The European Central Bank (ECB) is inviting fintechs, payment firms and other organizations to explore how artificial intelligence agents — software programs that can perform tasks on behalf of users — could be used in digital euro payments. The ECB opened applications on Monday for a new round of its digital euro innovation platform, outlining the program in an official call document.

The initiative is split into two components: hands-on testing of payment features and workshops on potential future uses of the digital currency.

The experimentation track will run from January through June 2027, with selected participants developing prototypes for e-receipts, multiparty transactions, conditional payments and new front-end features.

Complementary workshops, scheduled for the first half of 2027, will examine AI-enabled payments, micropayments, machine-to-machine interactions and uses of the digital euro in public services. Machine-to-machine interactions cover scenarios in which connected systems, potentially including AI agents, initiate or receive payments without direct human involvement. A subset of participants will present their work at the ECB's Frankfurt headquarters, and the central bank said the findings could inform future enhancements and use cases for the digital euro.

The digital euro is a proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) for retail payments across the euro area. It would operate as digital cash alongside physical banknotes and coins, representing a direct claim on the central bank rather than on a commercial lender.

The ECB has already selected 36 banks and payment firms, including Revolut, Stripe and Deutsche Bank, for a separate 12-month pilot beginning in the second half of 2027, shortly after the innovation round's experiments and workshops are scheduled to wrap up. Any issuance would still require EU legislation and a subsequent ECB decision, the two steps that will determine when, or whether, the digital euro moves from testing to the market.